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Dec 26, 2007 9:35 pm US/Eastern
How About A Scratch Ticket With Your Coffee?
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
You may soon be able to pick up a scratch ticket with your morning coffee.
That might be the order of the day at Dunkin' Donuts outlets in Massachusetts if the state lottery follows through on a plan to dramatically increase the number of places where scratch tickets are sold.
Lottery officials say preliminary discussions have already been held with Dunkin' Donuts, along with other large retail chains such as CVS Pharmacy and Home Depot.
State Treasurer Tim Cahill told a recent budget hearing on Beacon Hill that the only sure-fire way to sell more lottery tickets is to increase the number of places where they are sold.
Profits from the lottery are redistributed to cities and towns. But revenue has fallen short of budget projections in the last two fiscal years. "We hope to bring in more than $900 million this year in aid, and we want to make that growth sustainable so one of the things we look for is ways to increase our business," said Dan Rosenfeld with the Massachusetts State Lottery.
Last year, the Massachusetts brought in $761 million in revenue from lottery sales. But in 2007, the total revenue fell $119 million below expectations.
The state of California Lottery will soon start a pilot program to sell its tickets in CVS Pharmacies there.
Massachusetts officials said if it works in California they may give it a go here. But the Massachusetts State Lottery won't get the results from California's scratch ticket pilot program until sometime next year.
Scratch tickets are popular among customers at convenience stores, and many say convenience is the reason many of them will buy more tickets if they're available in more locations.
"When I want them I usually come here because they always have them available here," said lottery player Mary Albano. "But I'm always frequenting other stores and if they had them I'd buy them there."
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